Artificial intelligence is transforming business and the way people work. To succeed in this new world, we must embrace AI. That means everyone needs to know how to use AI, not just those who work in technology.
“Every employer in the world is talking about AI,” he says balaji padmanabhan, Professor and Chair of the Department of Decision, Operations, and Information Technology at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. “They’re really looking for people to help them with this.”
A new report shows that the percentage of job openings requiring AI skills is rapidly increasing in the Washington, D.C., region and many other regions outside the tech hub of California. UMD-LinkUp AI Map Job tracker developed by Professor Smith anil gupta, Shiva Viswanathan and Zhang Kunpeng. You can use this tool to find job openings, but you need the right skills to find job openings.
That's where business schools come in.
The Smith School gives students what they need to stand out to employers looking for AI skills.
Here's how you can leverage AI to succeed in the future of work.
- Take advantage of technology. Companies that don't leverage AI will fall behind. No matter what business field you want to enter, not understanding how to work with AI can be very risky. In Smith, nOur 40-some faculty members across disciplines are churning out new AI research and leveraging both the results and technology with students in the classroom.professor smith Sean Kao I am writing of It's a textbook on how to use AI in accounting and finance, and learning it is so important that he's making it available for free as part of Smith's. AI Initiative for Capital Markets Research. Furthermore, the professors wendy mo, Rie Ma, Zhang Kunpengand Wedad Elmagraby We work closely with companies like Amazon, Deloitte, and Meta on AI-related initiatives and bring that experience into the classroom.and professor PK Kannan’s commitment to executive education in AI is permeating more companies.
- Know how to handle it. You don't have to be an engineer, but you do need to make an effort to understand technology. At Smith, We have just introduced a new MBA specializing in AI and business strategy. We have a series of courses that cover the basics of AI, governance, applications, and artificial intelligence design. Students learn to critically analyze the capabilities of AI, use that understanding to explore business applications of AI, recognize the importance of ethics and responsible use, and develop short- and long-term horizons. Both will think about “return on investment”, consider the direct and secondary impacts of AI (including bringing unintended consequences to the fore), and jointly explore what the future of work itself will look like. To do. This specialization is perfect for students with technical backgrounds who want to hone their problem-solving and management skills, as well as students with managerial backgrounds who want to learn more about the technical and business foundations of AI, says Padmanabhan. There are plenty of jobs related to AI for both types of students, he said.
- Use a business-centric mindset. Jobs that can be easily automated by AI will likely disappear, but many new types of jobs will be created.That's Professor Smith's central theme. roland lastIn his book, The Feeling Economy: How AI is creating an era of empathy, he says that workers with the best intuition, empathy, creativity, and interpersonal skills will be successful. So students with business thinking for problem-solving and return on investment, as well as knowledge of what AI is and how it can help, will be very attractive in the market, says Padmanabhan. . “A big part of this is a business-centric mindset,” he says. “It’s important to pursue the right set of problems and opportunities through an informed, design-centered lens that prioritizes return on investment and long-term value.” To do this, choose the right problems wisely. They need to be very intentional about how they design, develop and deploy AI in their business, be able to mix both AI-first and human-first thinking, and have a clear understanding of how to measure impact. is. “These are all areas that are not very easy to implement and where business school thinking can have huge benefits for today's companies and policy makers as well,” he says.
- Recognize AI shortcomings and manage risks. This means creating governance mechanisms that can manage the risks of AI without unduly stifling its transformative potential. Now that everyone knows more about how AI works, feigning ignorance about the issue is no longer an option, and there is simply no excuse for its misuse. “If an organization implements AI in some way and then discovers that there are unintended consequences, the excuse of ‘I didn't know this would happen’ can no longer be used,” Padmanahan said. Masu. Businesses need to have the right governance processes in place and think about how to design AI applications to get the most benefit the technology can offer while mitigating the downsides. This was the central theme of the Smith School's recent AI Symposium on Design and Governance with industry leaders and companies. Scholar. This also means finding and fixing defects quickly. For example, Professor Smith Lauren Lustudy found that facial recognition software that analyzes emotions has racial bias. Her findings and other similar studies led Microsoft to remove emotion detection features from its facial recognition software.
Business school graduates have a huge opportunity to leverage AI to shape the future of work. It starts now.
“One of the big opportunities is to think about how we can use smart humans and our AI friends to transform work itself – every person, every task within a business,” says Padmanabhan. And that may require thinking about what it's like to start with a clean slate today. This can be of great value on its own.
The future of AI is here for all businesses, perhaps a little sooner than we think. But life doesn't come with an “undo” button to buy you time to figure things out. Indeed, now is the time to develop the understanding and thinking that will help shape this future.
Smith Brain Trust features business expertise from faculty at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business. Professors provide insight on hot business topics in a weekly newsletter focused on current events and practical tips for busy professionals.
